{"id":26008,"date":"2015-06-27T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T14:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=26008"},"modified":"2015-06-30T07:15:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T11:15:10","slug":"conservatives-grapple-with-marriage-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/06\/conservatives-grapple-with-marriage-equality.html","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives Grapple with Marriage Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Almost as soon as I heard about yesterday\u2019s Supreme Court ruling, my mind turned to the ways conservatives would respond. I have not been disappointed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See, for example, this argument from\u00a0Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:<\/p>\n

\n

Five Justices on the Supreme Court have overturned the votes of 50 million Americans and demanded that the American people walk away from millennia of history and the reality of human nature. In reaching a decision so lacking in foundation in the text of the Constitution, in our history, and in our traditions, the Court has done serious damage to its own legitimacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tony may be unaware of this, but it is my understanding that our government\u00a0was set up the way it was to prevent democracy from robbing people of basic human\u00a0rights. After all, a pure democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on who they should eat for dinner. Our government is not that, and it is my understanding that the judicial branch especially was created to ensure that\u00a0will of the majority does not violate the rights of the minority. In this sense, it is completely irrelevant that the Supreme Court overturned \u201cthe votes of 50 million Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Loving v. Virginia ruled against\u00a0anti-miscegenation laws in 1967, they made voided\u00a0laws against interracial marriage still on the books in the 16 states<\/a>. Presumably, lawmakers in those sixteen states had passed laws against interracial marriage with the support of their constituents. Indeed, over 50% of the American public opposed interracial marriage as late as 1995<\/a>. Sometimes the will of the people\u2014and, yes, the votes of the people\u2014should<\/em> be overturned.<\/p>\n

But honestly, Tony is barking up the wrong tree even here. The majority of Americans<\/a> have supported marriage equality since 2010<\/em>. The Supreme Court did not<\/em> in fact rule against the will of the people, and appealing to the will of the people here is self-defeating. And given the rapid rise of support for marriage equality, we can expect those numbers to only rise. Tony and others cannot continue appealing to \u201cthe will of the people\u201d if their position becomes the minority one, as it already has.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s turn to\u00a0Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage:<\/p>\n

\n

We urge the American people and future presidents to regard today\u2019s decision just as President Abraham Lincoln regarded the\u00a0Dred Scott<\/em>\u00a0ruling when he said in his first inaugural address that \u201cif the policy of the government upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made\u2026the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is Brian really comparing the Obergefell decision, which allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual couples to marry, to the Dred Scott decision, which declared that African Americans, slave or free, were not citizens? Yes, yes he is. Because apparently allowing gay people to marry is basically the same as denying black people any rights whatsoever. Or something like that.<\/p>\n

Why would Brian\u00a0compare this decision to the most notable pro-slavery Supreme Court decision?\u00a0Well for one thing, this\u00a0is a thing conservatives do. For decades now conservatives have been comparing abortion to the holocaust and to slavery. Roe v. Wade is often compared to Dred Scott. Conservatives in general and evangelicals in particular see themselves as part of the abolitionist tradition, fighting for freedom and against oppression. But something about this doesn\u2019t seem to fit when applied to marriage equality, given that conservatives are working to\u00a0deny<\/em>\u00a0individuals certain rights based on their group status.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s get one thing clear right now\u2014evangelicals and other supporters of traditional marriage are becoming increasingly concerned that they may be prosecuted or stigmatized for their belief that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. They point to cases of bakers being prosecuted for refusing to provide cakes for gay weddings as evidence of an impending crackdown on those who believe homosexuality is a sin. They, then, see this case as a nail in the coffin of their own criminalization.<\/p>\n

Are evangelical concerns valid? Yes and no.<\/p>\n

Let me start with the obvious:\u00a0No one is going to criminalize holding anti-gay beliefs. After all, we have not criminalized holding racist views. We do not arrest people for being white supremacists, and we will not arrest people for being anti-gay. Talk of concentration camps for those who believe homosexuality is sin is utterly ludicrous.<\/p>\n

But.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

While we do not criminalize holding racist views, we as a society do tend to marginalize those who hold overtly racist views (covert racism is generally another story). Similarly, while no one is going to round people up for believing that gay is sin, an increasing number of people have come to see that belief as bigoted. This is not a government thing, this is a public opinion thing.\u00a0Evangelicals are free to argue that their beliefs are not<\/em> in fact bigoted, but others\u00a0are just as free to disagree.<\/p>\n

While we do not criminalize holding racist beliefs, we do<\/em> criminalize discriminating against others based on those views. To be specific, businesses are not allowed to deny service based on race. The same will likely become true of sexual orientation. So while evangelicals are free to believe that being gay is a sin, they will not<\/em> be free to act on that belief by discriminating against gay, lesbian, and bisexual couples. Evangelicals\u00a0are free to argue that such restrictions are wrong, but others are free to disagree.<\/p>\n

Which is more important\u2014gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals\u2019 right to not be discriminated against, or evangelicals\u2019 right to discriminate against gay, lesbian, and bisexual\u00a0individuals? This is a question we as a society have yet to answer conclusively, given the current haphazard nature of anti-descrimination statues. Of course, we answered this question decades ago when it comes to race, and I suspect (and hope) that the answer will be the same here as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth remembering that nondiscrimination laws do not apply the same way everywhere. Just as pastors are free to refuse to marry interracial couples they will also be allowed to refuse to marry gay, lesbian, and bisexual couples. Nondiscrimination laws tend to apply to businesses<\/em> but not to churches<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are some\u00a0additional questions that will have to be worked out as well. For example, the tax exempt status of Christian schools and colleges may become an issue in upcoming years just as the tax exempt status of many Christian schools and colleges was in question when said schools barred interracial dating or refused to admit nonwhite students. Evangelicals will similarly object to public school curriculum that normalizes marriage equality, but then, that has already been an issue for years now.<\/p>\n

How do we sort these questions out? When it comes to public school curriculum, normalizing homosexuality is little different from normalizing pluralism in general. Part of the mission of public schools is to give America\u2019s children similar underlying values\u2014things like freedom and equality\u2014and to promote societal cohesion (which in a pluralistic country means teaching tolerance and acceptance of differences).\u00a0As for Christian schools and colleges, well, we as a society will have to decide whether we are comfortable with public monies going to support institutions that discriminate against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals and teach that homosexuality is a sin. (Some will\u00a0argue, of course, that receiving a tax exemption is different from receiving public funds.)<\/p>\n

Could one argue that\u00a0opposition to gay\u00a0rights is more religious than cultural while opposition to the civil rights movement was more cultural than religious? Perhaps, but this is not self-evidently true to me. Opposition to gay\u00a0rights is pretty cultural itself\u2014anyone looking at the history of gay rights in the twentieth century will notice that much of modern homophobia was developed in a secular context during\u00a0the 1940s and 1950s. Even so, many evangelical churches preached racial segregation from the pulpit throughout most of the twentieth century, basing their position in scripture.<\/p>\n

There are really only two things I can say for sure here: First, evangelicals will not be arrested or otherwise rounded up simply on the basis of believing that homosexuality is sin; and Second, the next few years will be interesting indeed.<\/p>\n

Note: An earlier version of this article left out bisexual couples and\u00a0thus contributed to bi erasure. Many thanks\u00a0to those who brought this to my attention!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are really only two things I can say for sure here: First, evangelicals will not be arrested or otherwise rounded up simply on the basis of believing that homosexuality is sin; and Second, the next few years will be interesting indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[110,106],"class_list":["post-26008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics","tag-lgbtq","tag-marriage-2"],"yoast_head":"\nConservatives Grapple with Marriage Equality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are really only two things I can say for sure here: First, evangelicals will not be arrested or otherwise rounded up simply on the basis of believing that homosexuality is sin; and Second, the next few years will be interesting indeed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/06\/conservatives-grapple-with-marriage-equality.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conservatives Grapple with Marriage Equality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are really only two things I can say for sure here: First, evangelicals will not be arrested or otherwise rounded up simply on the basis of believing that homosexuality is sin; 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